2nd body linked to Gacy to be exhumed at mother's request

Sherry Marino has held out hope that her son Michael might still be alive. He disappeared at age 14 in 1976.

Sherry Marino has held out hope that her son Michael might still be alive. He disappeared at age 14 in 1976. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune)

Patrick M. O'ConnellChicago Tribune

Mother of purported victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy wants to exhume a body to determine if it's his.

For the second time in less than four years, a Cook County judge has granted a Chicago woman's request to exhume the body of one of John Wayne Gacy's victims to determine whether the remains belong to her son.

Sherry Marino wants to exhume the body previously identified as the friend of her son Michael, who went missing in October 1976. The remains of Kenneth Parker are buried in Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.

Cook County Circuit Judge Rita Novak granted Sherry Marino's petition to exhume during a brief hearing Wednesday at the Daley Center. No one from Parker's family attended the hearing.

This is the second set of remains Sherry Marino has sought to have exhumed. Remains previously identified as her son were dug up from Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Hillside after Novak granted her request in 2011. Privately obtained DNA testing in 2012 indicated she was not the biological mother of those remains.

Law enforcement authorities told Sherry Marino in 1980 that her son's remains were among those found in the crawl space of Gacy's home in Norwood Park Township. She never believed police and, unlikely as it may be, she has held out hope that her son might still be alive. Michael Marino was 14 when he went missing.

Sherry Marino now will attempt to raise the thousands of dollars needed for another exhumation so a DNA sample can be collected from the remains that until now have been identified as Parker's.

"I'm very happy, very happy," Sherry Marino, 70, said after the hearing. "Until it is totally clear and I know where my son is, I will not stop."

Marino's son and Parker were last seen alive together near Clark Street and Diversey Parkway. Two bodies, referred to by officials as Body No. 14 and Body No. 15, were discovered in a common grave at Gacy's home and later identified through dental records as the remains of Michael Marino and Parker. The two decomposing bodies were buried closely together, making it possible the remains were mixed together or misidentified when they were handed over to the families, said Steven Becker, Sherry Marino's attorney.

An area dentist who examined the remains after Gacy's arrest still contends that Body No. 14 is Michael Marino.

Gacy was convicted of the murder of 33 young men and boys in the 1970s. He was executed in 1994.

Becker plans to work with Rosehill Cemetery to arrange the exhumation once the Marino family raises the money to cover the cost. A privately hired pathologist will collect DNA from the dug-up remains. Becker also is requesting that a member of the Cook County medical examiner's office be present for the exhumation and be allowed to collect DNA.